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Prime Minister Imran Khan in a tweet on Monday “assured the nation” that those [found] guilty in the Sahiwal incident would be given an “exemplary punishment”, adding that the grief and anger of the people of Pakistan over the incident was “understandable and justified”.

The grief & anger of the ppl of Pak on Sahiwal incident is understandable & justified. I assure the nation that when I return from Qatar not only will the guilty be given exemplary punishment but I will review the entire structure of Punjab police & start process of reforming it.

“I assure the nation that when I return from Qatar not only will the guilty be given exemplary punishment but I will review the entire structure of Punjab police and start [the] process of reforming it,” added the premier, who will leave for Doha today for a two-day official trip.

Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari also took to Twitter, calling for an “end [to] decades of tolerance for killings through ‘encounters'”.

“What was tolerated, even encouraged by prev governments/state must end now as we strengthen Rule of Law and accountability for all,” the minister said.

From Rao Anwar to the Sahiwal incident – as part of the govt it is our duty to end decades of tolerance for killings thru "encounters". What was tolerated, even encouraged by prev govts/state must end now as we strengthen Rule of Law & accountability for all.

The incident is being probed by a joint investigation team (JIT) which is in Sahiwal to examine the crime scene, sources in the CTD said. The JIT will also interrogate eyewitnesses and local police as well as the CTD officials involved in the incident. According to a first information report filed earlier, the team involved in the incident was led by CTD Sub-Inspector Safdar Hussain, and included corporals Ahsan, Ramzan, Saifullah and Hasnain.

Video footage of the incident, statements of the surviving children, and initial statements by the CTD officials will also be included in the investigation, the sources added.

The JIT will present its report to the Punjab chief minister on Tuesday.

On Saturday, in what law enforcers described as an encounter with terrorists, the elite Punjab police killed four people, including a couple and their 13-year-old daughter, sending shock waves across the country as one of the three surviving children who were witness to the episode denied the official version in a video that went viral on social media.

A day after the incident, Prime Minister Khan had promised that “swift action” would be taken against those found responsible for wrongdoing.

As the funeral prayers were held for Khalil, his wife Nabeela, their daughter Areeba, and neighbour Zeeshan on Sunday evening, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said it was actually following Zeeshan — who was behind the wheel of the car that was showered with bullets — and regretted the killing of the couple and their daughter.

The CTD said it was following Zeeshan because he was a facilitator of terrorists. It claimed that two terrorists, Kashif and Abdul Rahman, who were killed in an encounter with the CTD in Gujranwala later on Saturday night, were Zeeshan’s accomplices.

Sahiwal police on Sunday registered a case under murder and terrorism charges against 16 unidentified officials of the CTD on the complaint of Khalil’s brother Muhammad Jalil.

According to the initial post-mortem report, Khalil was hit by 13 bullets, Nabeela four, Areeba six and Zeeshan 10, in the head, shoulder and chest. The bullets were fired at point blank range.

The CTD, on the other hand, registered a case under attempt to murder, murder, terrorism and other charges against the “suspected terrorists”.

KARACHI: A man and his pregnant wife were wounded in firing carried out by police during an encounter with suspects who had snatched an official rifle in the Korangi area on Sunday night.

According to Awami Colony police and hospital officials, two policemen riding a motorbike tried to stop two suspects also on a motorcycle in Korangi-5 near Model Park. The suspects stopped and snatched the official rifle from one of the policemen. They fled after abandoning the rifle at a short distance.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday will leave for Qatar on a two-day visit at the invitation of the country’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, RadioPakistan reported.

The premier is expected to hold meetings with the Qatari emir and prime minister to discuss matters of mutual interest. According to RadioPakistan, the prime minister will also discuss the matter of exporting labour to Qatar.

In December last year, Qatar had opened a visa facilitation centre in Islamabad for swift processing of visas of members of the Pakistan workforce wishing to work in Qatar. Doha has also promised 100,000 jobs for Pakistani workers, and the government is in talks with the Qatari government to adjust skilled members of the labour force returning from Saudi Arabia.

Last week, the Petroleum Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had also said that the prime minister “may request the Qatar government to provide a credit facility for LNG supplies and revise the prices” during his visit to Doha. Finance Minister Asad Umar and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have already visited Doha one after another in recent weeks and are understood to have put the matter on the table, according to Sarwar.

Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat on Sunday termed the killings of three members of the same family in a Sahiwal police ‘encounter’ “collateral damage” — caused during security personnel’s attempt to eliminate a suspected terrorist who along with his accomplices could cause large-scale destruction.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore alongside members of the cabinet, Basharat said the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials did not intend to “directly” harm deceased Khalil’s family during Saturday’s operation, but ended up killing them as collateral damage while targeting Zeeshan, a family friend and neighbour of Khalil who the minister said had alleged links with Daesh, a proscribed terrorist organisation.

In what law enforcers described as an encounter with terrorists, the elite Punjab police had on Saturday killed four people, including parents Khalil and Nabeela, their teenage daughter, and neighbour Zeeshan, sending shock waves across the country as one of the three surviving children who were witness to the episode denied the official version in a video that went viral on social media.

Basharat said that the team that took part in the operation had been taken into custody and its supervisor had been suspended.

A joint investigation team (JIT) tasked with probing the ‘encounter’ will present its findings to the Punjab government within three days, he said, adding that a first information report had been registered at the family’s request.

The provincial law minister revealed that the Punjab home department had issued a notification for the creation of a “high-powered JIT” which will be headed by Additional IG Ijaz Hussain Shah.

He announced that Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had approved a Rs20 million compensation for the family whose three members were killed during the alleged shootout between CTD personnel and suspected terrorists in Qadirabad.

He also announced that the Punjab government will bear the expenses for the education of the surviving children “till whatever stage they want to study”, but also noted that financial support cannot be a replacement for such a huge loss.

The announcement came as the funeral prayers of the four deceased were offered on Sunday evening.

‘Links to Daesh’

Raja Basharat told reporters that for some time Zeeshan had links to a “dangerous network” of Daesh — Arabic acronym for the militant Islamic State group — and was working with them. He claimed that this network was responsible for the murder of intelligence officials in Multan, the kidnapping of former premier Yousuf Raza Gillani’s son, Ali Haider, and the murder of two police officials in Faisalabad.

Basharat revealed that in the murder of the ISI officers in Multan, a silver Honda City car was used which police and agencies were searching for. On January 13, the Honda City was spotted allegedly carrying terrorists to Sahiwal.

When footage from the Safe City cameras was looked at, it was discovered that Zeeshan’s white Suzuki Alto was “also with the terrorists’ car”, the minister said.

He added that they would also share the video and pictures from the Safe City cameras which would show that Zeeshan’s car “was also being used by the terrorists”. CCTV footage from January 13 was later shown at the press conference in which a silver Honda City could be seen trailing behind a white Alto.

According to the minister, after tracing the car, surveillance footage between January 13 and 18 was reviewed and on January 18 it was “verified that Zeeshan was working with terrorists”.

The same day (Jan 18), agency personnel reached Zeeshan’s house and found terrorists present there along with explosive material, Basharat claimed.

He said since Zeeshan’s house was located in a congested area, conducting an operation there was not feasible. He added that if an operation had been conducted there, many peoples’ lives and houses would have been put in danger’s way. It was therefore decided to wait for the suspected terrorists to leave in the car.

On January 19, the Safe City cameras spotted the white Alto in Manga area going from Sahiwal, Basharat said. Security agencies were informed of this development and because the car had gone outside Lahore, the CTD team was informed to stop the vehicle.

According to intelligence gathered at the time, the terrorists were “carrying explosives” and there was information that they were headed towards some congested area, Basharat said.

“When the car was stopped in Sahiwal, firing took place,” the minister said, without elaborating. He added that the car’s windows were “black” and people sitting on the back seat could not be seen. Zeeshan was driving the car himself, Basharat said.

He said the JIT formed has been tasked with determining “how and why the firing had taken place”. Further action on the incident will be taken based on the JIT’s report, he added.

CTD’s stance

Quoting the stance of the CTD, the minister said Zeeshan had opened the fire first, but he noted that there was also the family’s stance “which is why a determination of the incident is necessary”.

He said the investigation team will determine why Khalil’s family was travelling with Zeeshan and what relation Khalil had with Zeeshan.

Basharat claimed that two suicide jackets, eight hand grenades, two pistols and bullets were recovered from Zeeshan’s car.

The JIT will also determine where Zeeshan was allegedly carrying these weapons and explosives and from whom he received them.

According to the minister, after news broke of the incident on Saturday afternoon, two terrorists present at Zeeshan’s house saw the news on social media and fled the residence to go towards Gujranwala. He said agencies tracked these suspected terrorists and when CTD personnel surrounded them in Gujranwala, they “blew themselves up with suicide jackets”.

He said if these terrorists had not been followed, they could have caused “very large-scale destruction in Punjab”, adding that many threat alerts had been received on the matter.

“The elimination of these terrorists was necessary” which is why the ISI and CTD conducted this joint operation, Basharat said.

Recapping the chain of events that culminated in the deaths, Basharat said this operation was done on the basis of intelligence “because of which a lot of innocent citizens’ lives have been saved”.

He said Zeeshan was killed in Sahiwal on Saturday afternoon, and two other suspected terrorists, Abdur Rehman and Kashif, were killed in Gujranwala the same day at 11pm “which was a continuation of this same operation”.

“Unfortunately because of the valuable loss of the Khalil family the credibility of this operation has been challenged,” Basharat remarked, reading from a paper.

The minister assured that Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Punjab chief minister felt the pain of the affected family and based on their orders, the family will be provided justice. “No sort of compromises will be made with anyone in this matter,” he stressed.

“I believe that this is the credibility of the current government, that without any discrimination we have to fulfil the requisites of justice,” he said, promising that those found responsible in the incident will be brought to justice.

In response to a question, he said the government will act on the observations of the JIT and clarified that the government “does not acknowledge any stance of the CTD”; it will acknowledge the stance of the JIT instead, he added.

Contradictions in official versions

Different versions have been put forward at different stages following the incident cast doubts over the CTD’s initial explanation.

The news broke when the CTD told the media that four suspects were killed in an encounter at the Sahiwal toll plaza near Qadirabad on the Lahore-Multan motorway at noon. The officials initially described the shooting as a daring attempt of the law enforcers to rescue a group of kidnapped children from their captors.

However, it was soon replaced by another explanation by the officials who said some dangerous terrorists with links to Daesh were travelling in the car which was intercepted by the police near the toll plaza.

The situation took a new twist when a minor son of the deceased parents, Umair, narrated the firing incident in a video that flashed on television screens in the afternoon.

The young boy’s account lent credence to the reports about the incident possibly being a case of mistaken identity.

He said the family was fired upon out of nowhere as they were travelling to Burewala from Lahore to attend the wedding of a paternal uncle of his.

“My father told them to take the money but spare us,” he said. The child denied that there were any weapons in the car.

Some witnesses quoted widely by TV channels corroborated the assertion that there had been no firing from those travelling in the ill-fated car. One witness said the elite police forced the vehicle to stop and fired at the car occupants from a close range.

At least four persons including two women were killed and three children injured during an alleged encounter with the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab police in Sahiwal on Saturday.

The alleged encounter — which the CTD officials later termed an ‘intelligence-based operation’ — took place on GT Road near Sahiwal. The CTD claimed that the operation was conducted on the basis of information about the presence of suspected terrorists, provided by the department and an intelligence agency — the name of which they didn’t specify.

According to the details provided by police, the CTD Sahiwal officials signalled a car and a motorcycle to stop near Sahiwal Toll Plaza.

“The [alleged] terrorists retaliated by firing at the CTD officials following which a shootout ensued. Once the firing stopped, four people were found dead, reportedly as a result of firing by their own accomplices, while three terrorists had fled the scene,” read the CTD statement.

As per the CTD statement, suspects identified as Shahid Jabbar and Abdul Rehman were travelling towards Sahiwal and were reportedly in possession of arms and explosives.

“They used to travel with families to avoid police checking. Today, they were warned to surrender but they resorted to firing,” read the statement, adding that the Shahid Jabbar, Abdul Rehman, and another unidentified suspect fled from the scene on a motorcycle.

However, the details of the incident, as narrated by the eyewitnesses and children accompanying the deceased, differ drastically from what the CTD has been trying to establish.

Eyewitnesses told that the four persons travelling together in a car — who happened to be family members — were shot dead in cold blood by police and categorically stated that no weapon was recovered from the vehicle after the alleged shootout.

A video of the crime scene shows the bodies lying in the car after the firing incident.

Meanwhile, Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan said the actual situation will get clear after the initial investigation into the incident.

The CTD officials took action against the suspects on a tip off from an alleged terrorist who had been arrested by the intelligence agencies in Karachi, the minister said.

KARACHI: A drone was sighted hovering over a Sukkur-bound commercial aircraft of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) only minutes after it took off from the Karachi airport on Friday.

Sources said the PIA flight PK-536, an ATR aircraft, was at an altitude of 4,300 feet when the drone emerged 100 feet above it for a brief period at 5.27pm. They said the drone was a three-foot dark purple object. It was also seen on the radar screen of the air traffic control that immediately communicated the information to the Pakistan Air Force as per the standard operating procedure.

A PIA spokesperson confirmed the incident and said the pilot of PK-536 witnessed the drone at a very close distance. He said the plane landed at Sukkur safely and returned to Karachi the same evening as per schedule.

He said the incident had been reported to the Civil Aviation Authority and other authorities concerned but so far the PIA was not communicated anything about it.

In December, Britain’s second-busiest airport, Gatwick, was forced to close its only runway repeatedly due to the drone sightings. Thousands of people remained stranded at the airport as over 1,000 flights were cancelled or delayed. Arriving flights were diverted to other airports around the UK or even as far afield as Paris and Amsterdam.

KARACHI: The Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has revived a condition for used car imports that proved controversial last time it was introduced. The condition is that payment of duties and taxes for all car imports be made in foreign exchange to be directly remitted from abroad by the person importing the vehicle. Most used cars are imported in Pakistan under baggage rules or gift scheme, which is designed for personal purposes only, but are then sold off in the market.

Car assemblers and their vendors are relaxed on the move, but traders of used cars anticipate drastic fall in import.

As per MoC’s order on Jan 15, 2019, duty and taxes on all imported vehicles, in new and used condition, under personal baggage or gift scheme will be paid out of foreign exchange arranged by Pakistani nationals themselves or local recipients supported by bank encashment certificate showing conversion of foreign remittance to local currency.

“It is a right move by the government,” Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association Director General Abdul Waheed Khan.

The government, he said, has revived the condition of payment of duties and taxes in foreign exchange now after the previous government took the move and abandoned it within months, back in February 2018.

The condition was imposed in November 2017 as a measure under Auto Policy 2016-2021 requiring users of baggage scheme to pay their duty and tax in foreign exchange. The idea was to restrict misuse of the facility by traders, since the practice created a drain on local foreign exchange reserves by sending the cost of vehicle from Pakistan in foreign exchange through other hundi and hawala channels.

As per MoC’s order, the remittance for payment of duties and taxes must now originate from the account of the Pakistani national sending the vehicle from abroad. The remittance shall either be received in the account of Pakistani national sending the vehicle from abroad or, in case his account is nonexistent or inoperative, from the account of a family member.

Data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics shows that imports of completely built-up cars (90 per cent used cars) fell by 43pc in the first half of fiscal year 2019. The total imports were $156 million versus $277m in same period last fiscal.

Former chairman Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers, Aamir Allawala sounded gleeful. “Used car imports will be eliminated and may become a history.”

He said this decision would encourage assemblers and vendors to make future expansion and investment without any fear of competition from used car imports in future.

All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association Chairman H.M. Shahzad recalled that dealers suffered heavy demurrages when the same decision was taken in 2017 due to which importers could not clear vehicles from the port from October, 2017 to March, 2018.

He said the government had taken a one-sided decision without taking used car importers into confidence. “Used cars imports will see sharp plunge in coming months as the government has made future imports impossible,” he said.

Almost one million vehicles are sold in the market annually in which local assemblers supply about 250,000 vehicles and about 70,000 are imported. The rest of the public is dependent on buying five to 20-year-old used cars. Besides, 95pc of the used imported cars are of 660-1,000cc which have very good mileage on petrol. The 660cc vehicles are not assembled in Pakistan.

Transfer of residence, personal baggage or gift scheme are the only mechanisms through which import of new/used vehicles are permissible in Pakistan. In absence of any other means for import of vehicles, by virtue of this SRO, import of vehicles, which generates handsome revenue for the government in shape of import duties, levies and income tax, is likely to be shut down completely, bringing revenues to zero, he said.

In absence of imported vehicles in the market, the public will be at the mercy of local assemblers who, after new decision, will sell their products at exorbitant prices owing to the lack of competition. Due to limited production capacity of local assemblers, the on-money or premium over the actual price of a vehicle would also increase manifold.

If the government thinks that the present schemes are being misused, then it should allow commercial imports so that the used car import business may continue, he said.

Mr Shahzad said that importers will urge Prime Minister Imran Khan and Finance Minister Asad Umar to review the decision and hold a meeting with used car dealers on the issue.

LAHORE: All star cricketers will come to Pakistan to play in the eight matches of the fourth Pakistan Super League (PSL) scheduled for Karachi and Lahore, chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ehsan Mani said here on Thursday.

The PSL matches will be staged from Feb 14 to March 17 at three venues — Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi — in the United Arab Emirates before the remaining fixtures move to Pakistan with Karachi staging five games, including the final, and Lahore three.

Talking to media on sidelines of a friendly cricket match between the Sports Journalists Association of Lahore (SJAL) and the UK-based Pakistani journalists at the Gaddafi Stadium, Mani said a good number of star cricketers had signed up in the six PSL franchises.

However, because of security concerns, prominent overseas players have been reluctant to travel to Pakistan. But with the passage of time, the number of prominent cricketers willing to visit Pakistan has risen. In the recent development the ex-South Africa captain A.B. de Villiers has already pledged to play two matches of Lahore Qalandars in Lahore on March 9 and 10.

To a query, Mani said the talks with Cricket Australia are still on to convince them to send their national side to Pakistan for two games of the five-match One-day International series in the UAE in March despite reports of Australia’s expressing their reluctance regarding playing here.

The PCB chief declared that he has persuaded CA to send a security delegation to assess the current situation in Pakistan before taking a final decision, which is expected to be taken before the PSL begins in the second week of February.

Mani further said that talks were on with the cricket boards of South Africa and England to send different age-group teams to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Mani, who is also the chairman of the Prime Minister Task Force on Sports, said he had finalised the recommendations how to promote the sports in the country. He said his job was only to make suggestions and final authority to implement rests with the Prime Minister Imran Khan.

When asked why the task force didn’t take the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and other national sports federations on board before finalising the recommendations, the chairman said that step was not necessary because the government have no power to interfere in the POA affairs.

Mani disclosed the main focus of his recommendations was to bring professionalism in the sports and that maximum professional people should be at the helm of affairs.

Among the recommendations is that the government should only give grants to those federations who are properly active at the domestic level, instead of seeking grants for just one international assignment, he added.

Mani said the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is unjustifiably seeking funds from the government despite failing to present any comprehensive activity plan thus far.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday ruled out any role for India in the Afghan peace process.

“India has no role in Afghanistan,” Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said at the weekly media briefing while responding to a query about Pakistan’s position on India’s part in the reconciliation process.

This was in sharp contrast to what Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had told the National Assembly last month. “Since India is present in Afghanistan, its cooperation in this regard (facilitating a negotiated settlement of the Afghan conflict) will also be required,” he had told legislators.

US Special Envoy for Afghan Peace and Reconciliation Amb Zalmay Khalilzad during his ongoing regional tour travelled to New Delhi where he met Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. At the conclusion of his Indian trip, he had said: “We discussed how to help Afghans achieve enduring peace and areas of possible cooperation, both bilaterally and regionally.”

The FO spokesman in his briefing acknowledged that Pakistan has a difficult relationship with India. He said that despite Pakistan’s efforts for normalisation no concrete progress could be achieved in ties with India. “You all know that India is not willing to engage with Pakistan,” he reminded.

Talking about ceasefire violations by India along the Line of Control (LoC), he said, New Delhi was justifying it by levelling baseless allegations of infiltration from the Pakistan side.

“Indian mal-intent is also apparent from their repeated ceasefire violations instead of using the hotline contact between both sides,” he said.

The spokesman rejected Indian claims that Pakistan had planned a cross-LoC raid by alleged ‘Border Action Teams’.

“No such teams exist in Pakistan. The Pakistan army is a responsible and professional force which is committed to protecting the lives and property of its own citizens and would not resort to such irresponsible provocation,” he maintained.

He renewed the call for New Delhi to allow the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor ceasefire violations.

“Pakistan has consistently maintained, including officially to India, the vital need for the smooth functioning of UNMOGIP in line with UN Security Council’s resolutions for maintaining peace and tranquility. Despite levelling false allegations, India restricts UNMOGIP allowing virtually no movement on the Indian side in contrast with Pakistan which allows unhindered functioning,” he said.

The spokesman said Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Qatar from January 21-22.

“Issues of mutual interest will be discussed during the visit. The prime minister will discuss the import of manpower by Qatar from Pakistan,” he said.

A special Lahore court set up to deal with gender-based violence on Friday sentenced to death a man for the rape of a female medical student.

Announcing the court’s first sexual violence-related verdict of the year, additional sessions judge Rehmat Ali also handed the convict Waqas Khalid a fine of Rs0.5m.

Khalid has been sentenced to death under Section 376(2) (punishment of rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The judge also announced life imprisonment for the convict, under Section 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) of the PPC.

A first investigation report of the crime was filed at Lahore’s Quaid-i-Azam industrial area in 2016. According to the investigation, the young woman was kidnapped, raped and then released by the convict.

The case was registered after a medical examination of the victim was conducted at a private hospital.

According to the verdict, the crime was proven through witness accounts and the government-appointed lawyer’s arguments.

Following the verdict, the convict was escorted out of the premises amid tight security.